Just Harry
by My Kind of Paradise
Summary: To most people, he was Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived, Chosen One. But to one remarkable witch, he was just Harry. And strangely enough, being Just Harry had never been so nice. Snippets in the lives of Harry Potter and Fay Quinn, years 1-7. COMPLETE!
1. Year 1: Harry With The Pretty Green Eyes

**Disclaimer: The only thing that I own is Faith Quinn. Nothing and no one else belongs to me. **

**

* * *

**_He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away. ~ Raymond Hull_

_

* * *

_**Year 1**

On the train, the other girls in the compartment talk about a rumor. They say that Harry Potter, _the _Harry Potter, is going to start school that term and that he will be in their year. Faith has never in her life heard of Harry Potter, and she feels a little shy when it comes to asking who in the world he is. She sits in her corner seat by the window and runs her fingers over the smooth wood of her magic wand. "Who's Harry Potter?" she asks softly, and they all look at her as if she has just grown a foot on her shoulder.

"You don't know who Harry Potter is?" one of the other girls demands shrilly. "Are you a muggleborn?" she asks bluntly.

Faith felt her cheeks grow hot; she _is_ muggleborn, but she had an aunt who went to Hogwarts. She doesn't like the other girl, with her dark hair and dog face, and she especially doesn't like the way that the other girl says muggleborn like it's a dirty word. "I don't see what that has to do with whether or not I'm muggle born or not," she says through her teeth. "Who's Harry Potter?"

They never do tell her who Harry Potter is. Just as one of the girls starts to tell her who Harry is, she's cut off by one of the others as she squeals that the train is stopping. Everyone runs from the compartment, and Faith is left all alone in the compartment, as curious as ever.

She follows the others away more slowly, and as she steps off of the train, she hears a voice hollering for the first years. That's me, she thinks, taking a deep breath and heading towards the loud voice.

After a long, dark boat ride across a lake, she and the other first years arrive at a castle. A new teacher comes up to them and begins to arrange them into a line. She tells them that they are going to be sorted into different houses, and that "every house has produced fine witches and wizards," whatever that means. She then leads them into another room, and they follow her.

The next room is huge, and more than that, it's grand. There are five tables in the new room, one horizontal one at the front near her and the other students where all of the teachers are sitting, and four vertical to them, where the students are sitting. The ceiling looks like the sky, with what she guesses is a cloudy paint job and hundreds, if not thousands, of candles that float in midair. And there are ghosts, silvery beings that move around. Faith can't really hear what they're saying when they shout at the students, but she's impressed.

She sees people around her talking, she wishes for someone to talk to, too. She takes a deep breath, puts on a smile, and taps on the shoulder of the person ahead of her in line. He turns around, and for a moment, her confidence wavers and they just look at each other.

Then, she blinks and unfreezes. "Hi," she says brightly. "What's your name?" As an afterthought, she tacks on, "I'm Fay Quinn."

He looks at her, his lips pressed in a hard, thin line. He seems too nervous to smile. "My name's Harry Potter." He watches her carefully for a few moments.

"It's nice to meet you, Harry." Fay smiles, and extends her hand to him. He takes it and finally smiles at her.

Then, there's a singing hat, and Harry and Fay begin to move forward in the line. The entire time, she's thinking about Harry and trying to figure out how he's different from everyone else. _Well_, she thinks, _he's a little short. But that's okay_, she thinks, _I'm short too_. _And he's thin, I guess._ Really, to her, he seemed like any other boy, with his messy black hair and wire-framed glasses. And he has a scar. In fact, Fay's a little This Harry Potter boy that everyone's talking about, he doesn't look extremely special. He has really pretty eyes, but that's the limit of Fay's knowledge of what makes him special. He certainly doesn't look like magic.

But then again, what does magic look like, anyway?

The names continue to be called, and Harry's up next. She perks up and pays extra attention. The messy, dingy hat is placed on Harry's head, and he tenses almost instantly. After a long moment, the now familiar voice says something.

"GYRFFINDOR!"

And the Slytherin table boos, and the Gryffindor table cheers, and Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw clap politely. And it's her name that's being called for the whole hall to hear. She walks dutifully to the stool and takes her place. The hat is placed onto her head, and it slides down to her eyes.

"Well, what a sweet little thing you are," a voice whispers in her ears. She gasps involuntarily and looks around. Didn't anyone else hear that voice? Now it was chuckling at her. "Don't be so frightened, I do this to everyone. Now, I can see that you're a rather compassionate person. You believe in hard work, and you've got a desire for truth and justice stronger than most I've ever seen. Couple those with loyalty, a little bit of stubbornness…Yes, there's no place for you but….

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table bursts into cheers and whistles, and she's so happy when she realizes that it's all for her. She runs to the table as fast as she can (which is fairly fast) and she takes the first seat out of many that were offered to her. And for the rest of the evening, she knows that she's found her home with all of the nice people in yellow and black.

But that night, when she's in the bed, listening to her new roommates snore, she doesn't think about Hufflepuff house, or the castle, or ghosts or roommates or anything like that. All she thinks about it Harry. Just Harry with the pretty green eyes.

* * *

**Thoughts and comments, please? Do people like it? Should it be continued? And, more importantly: do Harry and Fay get a happy ending, or a sad one? Place your vote and tell me why in a review!**


	2. Year 2: Not the Dark Wizard Type

**Disclaimer: I own Faith Quinn. That's all. **

**I feel proud of myself. Two chapters are up already! TWO chapters! Mostly because I've got this story in my head and it won't go away, but still, that's great. Hopefully, since it's a long weekend for my school (thank God that we're all a bunch of hicks and it's hunting season) I'll be able to update this again and maybe my Naruto story, if I'm lucky....Anyways, on to to the story.**

**

* * *

****Year 2**

"I'm telling you," she argues in hushed tones with Ernie Macmillan as Professor Binns drones on and on about giants or trolls or something. No one in the room seems to care, least of all Fay and her antagonist. "There is no way that Harry Potter is the Heir of Slytherin." Fay crosses her arms across her chest, and Ernie mirrors the motion from the table in front of her. Ernie's squat and chubby, with short blond hair and an overly-rosy complexion.

"What makes you think that he's not?" Ernie demands haughtily. "Look at the facts, Quinn: he's been at the scene of every attack so far, plus he's a parselmouth! We all know what that means, don't we?" Everyone in the conversation, all second year Hufflepuffs, nod, though some do it reluctantly.

"Well, for one," she hisses irritably, "He's a Gryffindor, Macmillan. There is no bloody way that any descendant of Salazar Slytherin is going to be placed in Gryffindor House. Do you even have a brain in there?" She motions towards his head, and thinks that it's ridiculously fat for all of the substance inside of it.

"But he's _Harry Potter,_" Ernie insisted in a low voice. "Look at what he's done so far, Quinn. Obviously, he's really powerful. Maybe it's genetic."

The pixie-like blond crosses her arms over her chest. "If Harry is a really powerful wizard, and I'm not sure at all that he is, then he's a really powerful Light wizard, not an evil tyrant bent out to get every muggleborn in the school!"

"Well, you can think whatever you want, Quinn, but I know for sure that I don't want to be in his group in Herbology next hour!"

"Fine!" Fay says childishly "Then you can work with Susan and Justin and Hannah and I'll be in Harry's group!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

The bell rings, and Professor Binns dismisses the class. Faith stalks towards the exit and is out of the room before any one else. She steams her way towards the greenhouse and it's almost empty, except for a few Gryffindor girls who were chatting in the corner. Professor Sprout is there, too, and Faith walks up to her.

"Professor, is it alright if I switch groups? Just for today?" she asked politely. Professor Sprout, a round-faced woman with wild, short, curly gray hair, looks at her curiously.

"Why would you want to do that, Miss Quinn?"

"Ernie's feeling a bit uncomfortable with Harry, ma'am, and we agreed that I would work with his group, instead."

Professor Sprout smiles pleasantly. "If you and Mr. Macmillan have already decided, I guess it'll be alright just for one lesson. Take Mr. Macmillan's place, please."

She does, soon, Harry and his friends are there. They actually look a little relived when they see her, and they only pretend to care why she's there. Ernie comes in after they do, and she only smiles when Ernie turns red. She sends him a silent message: 'This is what you wanted, right?' He huffs and sits beside her partners. Everything goes smoothly, and then the lesson is over, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione are gone off to whatever class they have next. Faith waits by the door until Ernie heads outside.

"Guess what, Macmillan?" she said with a smile. "I sat by Harry Potter for the whole hour, and not a single thing happened to me. So, tell me, who's the heir of Slytherin?"

Before red-faced Ernie can speak, Fay skips away, pleased that she's gotten her way.

A week later, she's returning to the common room from the library after dinner. It's close to curfew, she thinks anxiously, checking one of the clocks that she passes on her way. She shifts the books in her arms uneasily, afraid for a few moments that she'll encounter the Heir.

She senses that something's not right. Longing to turn around, she finds herself too afraid to do so. She hurries around the corner, trying desperately to get to her common room. And she makes it almost there, until she stumbles and almost drops her books. Lurching foreword, she catches them, and the charms on her silver bracelet clinks. The noise surprises her, and she looks down at it. On the back of one of the charms, she sees a large yellow eye peering at her. She falls down to the floor, and the books fall out of her arms with a clatter.

She does not get up for many days.

The next thing that she knows, she's waking up in the Hospital Wing and there's a God-awful taste in her mouth. With a little difficulty, she looks up and gasps in surprise. Four of her professors, plus Madame Pomfrey and Professor Dumbledore, are all looking at her. She grins and, without a second though, slides out of the bed.

Professor Sprout grabbed her by the wrist on her way out of the room. "Where are you going, Miss Quinn?" she asks inquisitively. She looks amused more than annoyed. She knew Fay well.

Fay's brown eyes shine. "I have to go find Ernie Macmillan, Professor! I have to tell him I-told-you-so."

The Headmaster looks at her with twinkling blue eyes behind his spectacles. "Do you know what happened to you, Miss Quinn?" he asks.

She shrugs. "I have no earthly idea, Professor," she says respectfully. "But I do know that it wasn't Harry Potter!"

They sit her back on the bed, and Professor Sprout tells her exactly what happened. She nods through the explanation. Apparently, she isn't the last person who needs to be woken up, and the others move on to the next bed.

Faith, along with some of the other Hufflepuffs, is escorted back to their common room and dorms. To her surprise, she's just as tired as she was the last time that she walked the familiar passageways. Her thoughts are slow and sticky in her mind, and on the way, another, who was petrified much later than the others, tells her that Ernie has already apologized publicly to Harry. Fay's disappointed that she won't get to hang it over his head, but she finds that she's happy, too.

She knew that Potter wasn't the Dark wizard type.

* * *

**Thoughts, please? I need to know: Happy ending or sad ending? Cause I've got two good ideas, but only one will be used in the end. Please tell me what to do!I swear, if I don't get someone to tell me how to end it, I'll just go until sixth year and stop.  
**


	3. Year 3: Little White Lie

**Disclaimer: I own only Faith Cadence Quinn. J.K. Rowling owns everything else. **

**Chapter three is now up! Woo hoo! Okay, so they are short chapters, and there are only eight of them total, but still! Three chapters! I think that's great! The downside: I like this story, and I don't want it to be over too quick. TT_TT I don't know what to do....**

**On a slightly related note, I think that most people have decided that this story needs a happy ending, and I'm glad. I like to write sad, but this story is just always on my mind, and I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't give Harry and Faith a happy ending.  
**

* * *

**Year 3**

Faith brushes her hair in the third year girls Hufflepuff bathroom and surveys her appearance in the mirror. She looks decent, she decides before putting her hair things with the rest of her toiletries. She flits back into the other room, humming along with the Weird Sisters song that Hannah has blasting over the Wizarding Wireless Network in the dormitory. She looks up to see her three roommates smirking at her.

"You can't hide it forever, Fay," Hannah Abbot says mischievously. Hannah is a blonde, and her hair is a little on the long side and usually worn in pigtails. She has blue eyes and a sweet, round face. Hannah's very pretty in Faith's eyes, but in a soft way, a homey way.

Fay herself has a short, messy bob of caramel-colored hair. She looks like a pixie, even though she recently turned fourteen. Her dark brown eyes are huge and doe like in her elfin heart-shaped face and creamy skin. At the moment, she's frowning in confusion.

"Hide what?" She doesn't think that she's hiding anything from anyone.

"Your crush," Megan Jones says brightly.

Faith's mouth falls open with a slight pop. "I have a crush?"

"Yes," Susan Bones tells her sagely, nodding wisely. "On Harry Potter."

Megan's hair is curly and jet-black, a trait which she shares with her older sister, Hestia, who left school last year. Her flawless skin is dark brown, and her eyes are hazel. She's got a pretty smile, and she practically never frowns. Susan is a brunette and usually plaits her hair. Her eyes are a calm, serene gray. She's got a soft, peaceful face with subtle beauty. She and Megan are Fay's best friends in the world (Hannah's another good friend, but they don't spend much time together because Hannah is also good friends with Justin and Ernie, and Faith still can't stand Ernie), and with the two of them around, Fay feels plain in comparison.

"I have a crush on Harry Potter?" Fay asks, amused. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Don't be so skeptical, Faith Cadence Quinn," Hannah reprimanded. "You just can't tell that you have a crush on him because you can't see yourself when you're around him." She smiled knowingly, twirling a pigtail around her fingers.

"Well, how do I act when I'm around him?" She's genuinely curious now.

"Well, when he talks to you, you blush," Susan offers from her position on the end of her four poster bed.

"And you stare at him during class," Megan tells her, grinning ear to ear.

"And when someone insults him, you're the first to jump to his defense," Hannah starts, "Even before Ron or Hermione, and-," Fay cuts her off.

"Okay, so maybe it sounds like I have a crush on him, but seriously," Fay tells them. She shakes her head. "It's nothing at all."

A mischievous glint shines in Megan's eyes. "Aww, so sweet! Hannah, Susan, just look at this. Our little Faithy-kins, in love with Harry-bear! Isn't it so sweet?" She and the other two laugh. Susan falls back onto her bed, giggling madly, and Hannah drops to the floor and nearly shakes the room with her loud guffaws. Faith rolls her eyes but smiles, and kicks Hannah gently. She seizes the pillows from her unmade bed and throws one at both Susan and Megan. The one aimed at Susan hits her, but Megan dodges behind the door frame of the bathroom.

"Stop acting stupid," Faith says, "And hurry up, I don't want to miss too much of our first Hogsmeade visit!"

They're on their way out of the castle grounds when they encounter Harry Potter, who bumps into Megan and knocks her down on the ground. He looks angry as he helps her up silently and walks away. Looking at her friends for only a few seconds, Faith turns and jogs after him.

"Hey, Harry," she says, catching up to him easily and tapping him on the shoulder. He looks at her angrily. "What's the matter?"

"I'm not allowed to go to Hogsmeade," he tells her, frustrated.

She takes one look at his face and knows exactly why. "You didn't have a signed permission slip."

"No, my uncle wouldn't sign it," Harry growls, dropping said slip and stomping it into the ground, "So now I've got absolutely nothing to do today while everyone else is at the stupid village and-"

"I'll stay with you!"

Harry blinks at her. "What?"

Fay blushes. "Erm, I said that I'll stay here with you, if you want."

"Why would you want to do that?" Harry asks, looking stoically at her.

Because she has a crush on him. She looks down at the toes of her shoes. "Well, I'd want someone to do it for me, if it were reversed," she says softly. Well, it isn't exactly a lie. That might not be the reason, but it's a true statement, isn't it? So, it doesn't count as a lie.

He looks at her for a moment, and then, he smiles. "Er, thanks, Faith. That'd be nice. Actually, could you help me with some of my Divination stuff? You're good in that class, right?"

"Sure, I can try." Fay grins despite herself.

Harry looks relieved. "Thank you so much. You're a life saver, Fay. Can I meet you in the library with books and stuff?"

"Yeah, that would be okay."

They both head towards the castle, and as they walk, Fay sends one last look back over her shoulder at her friends. They all smile at her understandingly, and Susan waves. She wonders for a moment if it's really okay for her to just walk away with her crush (who she hadn't even known was her crush until just about half an hour ago), but then she remembers that they're the ones who told her that she had a crush in the first place and that they're probably still beaming at her retreating back.

For the rest of the morning, she tries (and fails) to help him understand divination. Harry's getting unhappy, and finally, Fay closes the book brings up the subject of Care of Magical Creatures, prompting Harry to suggest a visit to Hagrid's cabin, and she agrees, because she likes Hagrid, and she thinks that it'd be nice to get out of the library.

They have a ball at the cabin with Hagrid, and then they both have the idea to get back to the castle before dark. And when they reach the Hall, there's Megan and Susan and Ron and Hermione, and Fay goes off to the Hufflepuff table and Harry goes off to the Gryffindor table. And later that night, she sits up in bed and nibbles on the candy that the others brought her from Honeydukes and tells them about her day with Harry.

She tells them that it's not a crush, that she feels only friendly feelings towards Harry.

She was told, growing up, that lying was bad, that it could hurt other people. Still, she didn't see the harm in this lie. How could one little fib? It's just a little white lie.

It wasn't like he felt the same way.

* * *

**Good? Bad? Yes? No? Tell me, please! I'm dying for a little input here!**


	4. Year 4: First Kiss

**Disclaimer: I own only my OC. Nothing else. **

**Halfway through the series already! Well, things will probably slow down after I go back to school tomorrow, but it should be through by this time next week. That makes me kinda sad...  
**

**

* * *

Year 4**

Faith studies in the library. She couldn't concentrate in the common room, with all of the flashing "Support Cedric Diggory" badges blinking at her. She doesn't wear one.

"Hey. You're Faith, right?" a voice interrupts. She looks up to see a group of tall, lanky boys, all of whom she recognizes from the house Quidditch team. She nods, wincing when she notices the bright buttons that gleam at her from their shirts. "You're a Hufflepuff, right?" She responds with another nod. "Do you support Cedric?" She nods her head, feeling a little guilty. "Then where's your badge?"

"I lost it," she says softly. The boy who had spoken to her smiles.

"I have a spare. You can have it until you find yours." From his pocket, he extracts a badge identical to his own. He places it into his hand with a good-natured smile.

"Thanks," she whispers.

"No problem. We all need to support the Hogwarts champion, don't we?" He and his friends smile and walk off. Fay is left staring at the button with mixed feelings.

"But doesn't Harry go to Hogwarts as well?" she asks no one in particular. She sighs and stuffs the badge into her pocket. She'll decide what to do about it soon.

She finishes dressing for the Yule Ball and twirls around the room. She loves her dress and wants to savor every moment that she spends in it. The dress is made of floaty, pale pink material that makes her every movement feel like she's dancing. She wears a necklace of a tear-shaped pink pearl on a gold chain, and gold flats like ballet shoes. Her hair was too short to put up, and instead, is decorated with a clip with a large pink rose.

"Fay, are you done yet?" Susan asks from the doorway. Her dress is cobalt blue, and it really suits her. Fay feels like a princess in her gown, but Susan looks like an ancient Greek goddess in hers. "We don't want to keep the boys waiting, do we?"

By "the boys," she means Anthony Goldstein, her date, and Dean Thomas, Faith's partner for the evening, whom they promised to meet in the Great Hall.

"You know, Meg's really lucky," Faith comments as she follows Susan through the common room. "She actually gets to walk into the ball on the arm of her date." Megan's going with Justin, and this isn't the first time that they've gone out together.

Dean looks nice when Faith and Susan finally arrive, and Susan goes off with Anthony. Fay and Dean chat until the ball officially starts.

"You look nice," he says.

"You look nice, too," she says, smiling.

Then, the music starts, and they turn to see the school champions as they open the ball. Fay's stomach twists as she sees Harry dancing with the beautiful Indian girl with long dark hair and a stunning smile. She can see Dean eying the girl, too, and when the dance is over, she has to snap her fingers in his face to get his attention.

Dean looks over her should almost the entire time they dance, and when Faith is invited away to dance with a tall, dark boy from Durmstrang, he's eager to find a new dance partner. The Durmstrang boy is a good dancer, but she can't understand a word that he says, and finally, she breaks away from him.

For awhile, she doesn't dance at all, and instead, just listens to the music and to people talking. Eventually, she decides to just go back to the dormitory. She's on the bottom step of the stairway when she hears someone call her name. She turns and finds herself staring into the jade-green eyes of Harry Potter.

"Oh, Harry," she says. She blushes the same color as her dress. "Hi."

"Hello," he says. "Are you going back to your common room already?" He looks a little anxious.

"I was going to," she begins, then, she recognizes the song blaring as her favorite. "I love this song!" she says, smiling ear to ear. Harry grins, too.

"Can I have this dance?" he asks. Faith giggles.

"Of course."

He takes her hand and leads her back to the dance floor. The song is slow and romantic, and she can't help but blush.

"You're a good dancer," he tells her.

"I took ballet in primary school," she jokes. "You're not so bad yourself, you know."

"You can thank McGonagall for that." He twirls her around, and then pulls her close. "So, you love this song?"

"Yes," she says, smiling. "I know all the words." She starts singing along with the music softly, and Harry smiles. "'So believe that magic works. Don't be afraid of being hurt. Don't let this magic die. The answer's there. Eh, just look in her eyes. And make your final move. Don't be scared. She wants you to.'"

Harry smiles. "Nice."

Fay smiles. "Very."

Slowly, the song ends, and Harry strolls her towards the stairway again. "Thanks for the dance," she whispers.

"No problem. Any time." He sends her a truly dazzling smile. "It was nice to dance with the prettiest girl at the ball."  
Her heart leaps into her throat. He thinks that she's the prettiest girl at the ball! She feels so happy that she can't prevent what she's about to do.

Standing up on the tips of her toes, she pecks Harry Potter on the lips. It doesn't last long, and there's no tongue involved, but she's touching his lips with hers, and no one is pulling away. Then, she can't stand on her toes anymore, and she's done, and the reality of what she just did is all around her.

She turns and runs. She's halfway to the common room when he catches her and spins her around. She's too afraid to look him in the eyes.

"Fay?"

"Yes, Harry?" she whispers.

"Why did you do that?" he asks her. She doesn't answer. "Faith, do….Do you like me? You know, like more than friends?"

She nods. She has to blink back tears as she finally looks up. To her surprise, he's flushed and smiling.

"That's great, because I like you, too. And I was thinking, since you like me, and I like you, maybe you would like to come with me on the next Hogsmeade visit?"

"Y-yeah, I think I'd like that," she says, smiling a little.

"Great. Well, I'll…I'll see you around," he says, smiling. He turns and walks away, down the long corridor.

"Night, Harry," she says to him as he walks away, and for a moment, she can feel his lips against hers again.

She's glad that he was her first kiss.


	5. Year 5: Just Have To Be Enough

**Disclaimer: I own Fay. Got it? Good. **

**Yeah, it's just a little late, isn't it? And I was doing so well. You know, this was hard to write; there were so many good parts that I wanted in there that I had to be picky about. For example, I didn't get to do the moment when Fay first summons her patronus in the DA or anything like that! It stinks. ****Year 5**

* * *

Sometimes, like right now, Faith Quinn really wishes that she were more like Cho Chang. Cho is smart, and Fay struggles to get by in classes. Cho is beautiful, and at best, Fay's cute. Cho's a Ravenclaw, and Fay's a Hufflepuff. For crying out loud, Cho's patronus is a swan, possibly the most beautiful animal in existent, and Fay's is a tiny, common sparrow. And Harry broke up with Faith at the end of last year because he didn't think that he could "handle a relationship right now" but started to chase Cho almost as soon as school started.

But that's not the current reason that Fay wishes that she were more like Cho. The current reason is that she's sitting on the back of some mutant horse that she can't even see, flying off to the Ministry of Magic to with three of her classmates, two kids in fourth year that she barely even knows, and her ex-boyfriend to confront You-Know-Who and save Harry's godfather by doing God-knows-what, and she's betting that Cho Chang would never, ever do that. But that's why she's here: because she would do it and Cho wouldn't.

Sometimes, she thinks that her life would have been easier if she had just stayed a muggle.

She dodges a flash of light by dropping to her knees, and then pops up again and runs, full on runs, into the other wall. She puts her back to the wall and tries to think of what to do. No one seems to notice her for the time being, but the others (namely Ron, Ginny, and Luna; Harry, Hermione, and Neville have vanished) are surrounded, and it's three against four. Fay feels guilty that she's afraid, too scared to move and help them.

It's no secret that Fay isn't brave; after all, she IS a Hufflepuff. "I might not be brave," she whispers to herself, "But I'm not a coward. I have to help them. I have to."

She sighs, takes a deep breath, and wills herself to move forward. She can't, and she's frozen mid-step. Then, she sees something that spurs her into action: Ginny Weasley is lying pale on the floor, shaking, while a huge Death Eater stands over her and aims carefully, and Fay knows that something big is going to happen. She can't wait any longer; it has to be now.

She runs towards him, not knowing what to do, not knowing a spell that could defeat the burly monster before her. Not being able to defeat him, she instead disarms him, her loud as she screams the incantation. She's shocked when, instead of merely losing his wand, the huge Death Eater bellows and soars in one direction while his wand flies into Fay's hand.

Ginny looks around and sees Fay running towards her.

"Thanks," Ginny whimpers. Fay smiles tensely and kneels beside her.

"No problem," she says. She points at Ginny's ankle. "Is it okay?"

"No," Ginny says, clutching at it. "I think that it might be broken."

Faith thinks that she's right; ankles aren't supposed to bend that way. She also thinks that there's more wrong with Ginny than just a broken ankle; she's shaking, and it's worrying. But Fay isn't a healer; she isn't qualified to give out first aid.

"Stay here, Ginny," she commands, the certainty in her voice not reflected in her feelings. The girl nods, and Fay runs back into the fray, only to find herself dueling with a death eater. He fires curse after curse at her, and she retaliates, sending up shield charms and trying desperately to stun him. She fights him to the best of her ability; she is agile, and therefore able to dodge most of the curses. But the man is faster than her with the wand; the things that he does are amazing. He hits her with a well aimed disarming charm, and her wand flies in a different direction. She backs into a wall, and for a moment, she knows that she is going to die and closes her eyes.

There is noise, and she looks up. The masked death eater is scuffling with an unfamiliar black man, and she can only watch as they fought. She sees her wand over to the side, and she begins to inch towards it. It was there, lying in the doorway to another room. She grasps it and looks up. She pauses, shocked.

There is a man that she doesn't recognize who is dueling her headmaster. He is bald, with skin the color of milk and red eyes. He has no hair, and over all, he reminds her of an albino snake. It's frightening and mesmerizing at the same time. The strange man moves like a snake, with quick, darting movements, and the headmaster moves like a feline, stalking in his own time.

That's all she can remember; there's a searing pain in her arm, and she falls still.

She wakes up, and it's dark. The room is still; she recognizes the hospital wing. She feels eyes peering at her, and it's Harry when she turns her head.

"Hi," she whispers.

"Hi."

There is a silence in the room, and it's awkward; they haven't had a real conversation in months. She motions towards the bed to her right, where she recognizes the bushy hair of Hermione Granger. "Is she okay? And all of the others, what about them?"

"Madame Pomfrey said that everyone should be fine." He pauses. "Including you."

"Why am I here, anyway?" she asks. "I dodged almost everything that they threw at me. I should be okay."

"Really?" his eyes flash angrily. In a rough motion, he grabs at her left and pulls up the sleeve of her nightdress. Her breath stills in her throat. There are bandages there, clean and white, and she jerks her arm away and unwinds them. She is only bleeding a little bit, but what she sees still makes her flinch. Decorating her pale arm is a scar. It winds all the way from the back of her hand and ends beyond the sleeve of her gown. It snakes its way around her arm, and when she moves, it feels oddly restricted. She feels self conscious and wraps her arm up again.

"So, I can see why I'm in the Hospital Wing now," she says dryly.

"You were bleeding," Harry tells her. "It was really bad. They didn't know if you would be okay or not.' She can see the anger behind his words; he's angry at himself.

"But I'm fine. And who knows? Maybe the scar will even fade away."

"It won't." Harry says, matter-of-factly. "Dark magic scars never leave." She sees him touching his own in the dim light.

"I'm sorry," she whispers.

It's the day before the last day of school, and she finds herself desperately needing to use the bathroom. She walks into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom but finds that she's not alone. Harry Potter is also there, and he's splashing his face with water. When she comes in, he turns angrily.

"What?" he shouts. "What do you want from me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Harry!"

"Everyone expects something from me! First, I was the Boy Who Lived, and now I'm the Chosen One! What does that even mean, Faith, and why is it me? They all expect me to be able to save them! What if I can't, Faith? What if I can't? What if I'm not the one they need, and what if it costs them even more lives? And why does it always have to be me, Faith, why?" The words fly from his mouth, and Fay's first instinct is to run away while she still can. Instead, she crosses the room and wraps her arms around Harry Potter's waist.

"You don't have to be anyone but Harry if you don't want to be," she assures him softly.

He leans his head down, and she feels his face on her head and her hair gets wet. "But what if just Harry isn't enough, Fay?" he asks, his voice quivering.

"Well, it'll just have to be."

* * *

**Thoughts, please? Also, I'm considering using this story as a model for a more in detail version, most likely in first person point of veiw, and with way more than my planned eight chapters. Would you guys read it if I wrote it (and you could find it)?**


	6. Year 6: What Would They Do

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**This one and two more, and it's over. Now, I'm kinda sad....**

**

* * *

Year 6**

On her first day of N.E.W.T potions, she walked into the almost-empty potions classroom. There is a long table on which are spread several vials and cauldrons of all sorts of potions. Professor Slughorn, a jolly man, practically bounces to the doorway to greet her.

"Hello, my dear," he says happily. "Who might you be?"

She smiles, a little nervous, the way she always is when meeting new professors. "My name is Faith Quinn, sir."

"Oh," says Professor Slughorn. He seems disappointed, and then his eyes light up. "Oh, oh, oh! You're a friend of Harry Potter's! You fought at the ministry with him, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, well. You are a rather marvelous girl, for a Hufflepuff. Usually, there aren't many in this class." He waved his hand towards the table. "Take a look, take a look."

One of the potions smells simply divine, and Fay can't resist sniffing each in turn to find it. She does easily; it's shiny and the steam that spirals off of it is what she smells. She wants to know why it smells so great, and she leans in closer to catch the scent better.

She smells tea with milk and honey, just the way she likes it when she's sick. And there's the scent of just-washed towels, and there's the sweet, floral scent of her favorite lotion. And there's something else, too, something that she can't identify. It's clean and it's fresh and it's so familiar that she wants to kick herself for not being able to identify it.

But there are people all around her soon, and she doesn't have time to spend on the mystery fragrance in the amortentia.

But days later, she's walking down the stairs from Charms on her way to Care of Magical Creatures (she might be the only person in the class, but it would still look bad if she was late), and she trips and falls forward. She expects to land in a heap at the foot of the staircase, but instead, she finds herself clutched tightly in the arms of Harry Potter. He holds her the same way that a young child holds a doll or a stuffed animal, his arms around her waist with her arms over his. Dizzily, she thinks that he smells good, nice and clean. His perfect green eyes look at her, concerned.

"Fay?" He sounds concerned, too. "Are you alright?"

She jumps at the sound of his voice. "Yes, I'm okay. Sorry, Harry."

He smiles. "It's alright." He steadies her on her feet, and she smiles back at him. ""So, where are you off to?"

"Care of Magical Creatures," she tells him.

"You take that class?"

"Yeah. It's required for my career path of choice."

"And what would that be?"

"Wand maker." She beams at him. "Mr. Ollivander himself agreed to let me be his apprentice after I graduate. But that was before he went missing, so…"

"Oh. I get it." He looks at her for a long moment. "Well, don't be late."

"Right." She smiles again and half-turns. Over her shoulder, she says, "And you smell really nice."

When she gets outside, it's raining. She takes a deep breath and heads to the dryness of Hagrid's cabin, but stops in her tracks.

The smell of rain. Clean, clear, fresh. Like a new beginning.

It smells like her love potion.

It smells like Harry Potter.

The thought scares her so much that she runs all the way to the cabin. She can't look at Harry for the rest of the week.

She jumps when she feels the heat against her neck. She takes the small token and its chain from underneath her sweater. She had it made into a necklace last summer, so that she could remember. Now, she focuses on the little words on the metal. They dodge the whole stamped through perfectly.

"The DA needs you. Meet us by the room."

She leaves without a word. She'll help them. She needs to.

She wonders how she gets herself into these situations.

Curses are flying and once again, she's dodging them with everything she has. She lashes out with spells of her own. She casts shield charms between her allies and the Death Eaters, jumps. She flits from fight to fight and tries to contribute in any way that she can. Soon, she can see something unusual happening.

One large, very wild looking man is biting another man like an insane cannibal. The other man is bleeding. Fay thinks that he might be a Weasley; she sees freckles, and possible red hair. Then again, that might just be blood. She knows that she needs to help him; she aims carefully, trying not to hit the injured man.

"_Expelliarmus_!" she shouts, and her voice rings out unusually clear. The wild man is pushed only a short distance away, and the red-haired man sags to the ground, unconscious. The wild man looks, finally seeing Faith. He looks back and forth between the girl and the man, as if deciding which the better prey was. Faith knows what to do: she eggs on the chase, turning on her heel and running. He bays, and the hair on the back of the blonde's hair stands up. She continues to run as fast as she can, hoping and praying to God that this man-beast can't catch her. But he does, and she feels his breath on her neck and thinks that she's going to be a midnight snack….

It was the second time that she thought she would die but didn't; the breath is blasted away, and she opens her eyes. Harry Potter offers her a hand.

"Harry?" She asks, shakily.

"Faith, are you all right?"

She nods.

"Good." He turns. "I have to go."

"Harry," she whispers, "What's happening?"

"I'll tell you later," he promises, and he goes away from her. She goes back to the red-haired man in his pool of blood and starts when she sees the face. She's met him before, at the bank, and she was right. He is a Weasley; he looks a lot like Ginny.

She takes off her school sweater, leaving the white shirt underneath, and she presses the sweater onto the largest gash on the man's face. And she prays that no one will die tonight.

That was one prayer that came a bit too late.

"Faith, you really must come to ze wedding," the gorgeous, silvery blond woman insists from the seat behind her.

"No, really, I can't, that would be intruding, I hardly know either of you," Faith protests.

The red-haired woman beside the beautiful blond smiles at Faith maternally. "I insist as well, dear. You saved Bill's life, and that's all we need to know."

"Are you sure?" Fay asks, blushing. She does love weddings….

"Trust me," Ginny pipes up from two seats to her left. "They're sure." Ginny is sad and irritable. Fay doesn't hold a grudge on this, however; it's a sad day. Faith might love weddings, but she hates funerals. She suddenly doesn't want to argue anymore.

"Alright, I'll be there," she promises. Fleur looks pleased.

"Wonderful. We will arrange everything later."

"Quiet," Harry says beside them. He is sitting between Ginny and Faith, and he is even more irritable than all of the Weasleys combined. "It's starting."

There isn't a dry eye at Dumbledore's funeral. Fay shakes and quivers in her seat between Harry and Luna. She can't hold back the sob that escapes from her lips, but no one stares or looks down on her. Rightly, they couldn't.

Dumbledore was gone. What would they do without him?

What would Faith do?


	7. Year 7: Her Harry

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

* * *

**Year 7**

She is dancing with a boy that she doesn't recognize at the wedding reception, a stocky redheaded boy with freckles and solemn, guarded eyes. It's a slow song, and the way he holds her is familiar. She thinks she knows who he is, but she pretends not to and makes small talk.

And then there's a silvery-white Patronus there, and it tells them that the ministry has fallen and the minister is dead, that they are all in danger. The boy looks at her again, and she sees pain flicker in his eyes.

"Please, Fay," he whispers.

"Please what?" she asks, and she feels her eyes become teary. She knows what he's going to do. He looks at her unhappily.

"Take care of yourself," he requests, kissing her forehead quickly. He pulls away and runs. She watches as he joins arms with Hermione, who joins arms with Ron, and the three of them watch her for a moment.

"Harry," she says softly. "Please don't go." But he goes anyway, Apparated with a crack that she can't even hear.

She stares at the dead bodies of all of the people who died and cries and cries and cries. She's crying, especially, for all the people that she knows (or maybe it would be proper to say that she knew them). There's Fred Weasley, who was probably one of the funniest people that she ever knew, and there's Colin Creevey, a nice kid that she met through the D.A., and there's Professor Lupin, the best professor that she's ever had, and then there's his wife, who she's only met once or twice but that she liked and who just had a little baby a few days ago. And she cries especially for Megan, her best friend Megan, who she was with. She was there when Megan died, and she couldn't stop it. The thought makes her sobs triple.

She supposes that she will be able to see the threstrals now, if she couldn't already.

Beside her, Susan is sitting still, as still as one can. Fay would think that she was dead, too, if it weren't for her heavy breathing. Susan is injured; her leg is broken, and she can't possibly walk, let alone run if she needs to. She might be trapped when the ceasefire stops.

"Faith! Susan!" someone calls. It's Ernie Macmillan, but he's hard to recognize with that huge scar down his face. Fay has never been so happy in her life to see him that she doesn't notice that it's also the first time he's ever called her by her first name. Fay needs someone right now, someone who's alive, unlike Megan, someone who's sturdy, unlike Susan, someone who's here, unlike Harry. She's off the ground and she rushes to hug Ernie Macmillan.

"Thank God, Macmillan. I was worried that they got you, too!" And even though she hadn't even thought about Ernie, she knows that it's true. She can't take anyone else that she knows, even someone she can't stand, dying now.

But the Death Eaters are marching to the castle, and Voldemort's voice is magnified, and he tells them that Harry Potter has fallen. Almost everyone that is able rushes out, and Fay goes with them, her tears drying as she loses the ability to think for herself. She can't believe that Harry is dead, and really, she doesn't, until the moment that she steps outside and sees the figure of Hagrid holding something. It's a body, she realizes, and it not just anyone's body, but Harry Potter's body.

And that when Fay falls apart.

The others don't notice her as she stiffens; they are too busy wailing themselves on the outside. On the inside, she falls apart, and she feels pain to a point it's almost physical. She's so dizzy. They've killed him. Harry, HER Harry, is dead and gone. How could they kill him? How could he let them kill him? Why would he do that? Surely he knew that he was their only hope. Didn't he know that they needed him?

Didn't he know that Faith needed him?

She will fight now. She will fight, because there is very, very little that she wouldn't do for her Harry.

He isn't dead. He isn't dead at all, and instead, he is standing mere feet away from her with an expression on his face that she can't understand. He's filthy, his hair matted and his robes caked with dirt. There's a little blood on his cheek, and there's part of her that longs to wipe it away.

She stands still. He's done it, he's killed Voldemort. The part of her that wants to run to him is suppressed by the part of her that doesn't understand what's going on. She looks at him and she wishes that it's true, that she isn't dreaming.

"Hello, Faith," he says. Strangely enough, he doesn't sound like he's died tonight, and his voice is the same as ever. She can hear him well. It seems like everyone in the Hall is watching them, even the dead bodies on the floor, and somehow, it doesn't feel as awkward as she would have thought.

"Hi, Harry," she says softly.

"I see that you took care of yourself," he says quietly, looking her over from head to toe.

"Only because you asked me to so politely," she says, and she's only half joking. There were a lot of nights, frightening nights, when snatchers were so close to killing her, and she only managed to escape because she had to keep a promise. She looks him over, once, twice, thrice before she speaks again. "Bloody hell, Potter. I thought you were dead. I nearly went insane."

"I'm sorry, Fay."

She looks at him darkly. "You should be," she mutters.

"I am." He takes a deep breath and moves forward. They are separated by seven steps "I missed you." There's his eyes again, eyes that might be pieces of his soul stuck into his face.

She can't help it. "I missed you, too." She moves, too. "I'm really glad that you're not dead."

Six steps.

"I would have found a way back to you, even if I was."

Five steps.

"Really?" she finds herself asking. Her eyes grow teary.

Four steps.

"Yes." Three steps. Then, "I will always find my way back to you."

"Promise?"

Two steps.

"I promise."

One step.

She can't take it, and she closes that step by jumping at him, throwing her arms around his neck. She sobs into his neck, crying that she missed him, she worried about him, that he was dead. He presses his face into her hair.

"I know, I know," he whispers. "It's okay. It's over, Fay. It's all over now."

She looks up at him and sniffles. "I love you," she whispers.

He pauses. "I love you, too."

And she knows that it's no lie, and that now, he really is hers. Maybe even forever.

Zero steps.

* * *

**So, what do you think? Was that OOC of Harry? I can't tell. **

**There's only the epilogue left now, and I have no idea how to follow up on this. Unless I do a rewrite. I might do that. But the rewrite would be different, way more detailed. I might even change Fay's personality, or her house.  
**

**So, four questions: 1) what do you think? 2) if I rewrote it, would you reread it? and 3) What house should Faith be in if there's a rewrite? and 4) if not a rewrite of this story, what Harry Potter character should I do a romance for? Please tell me what you think!  
**


End file.
